Re: "This Day in Roman History"

[Lioneljoe]

Today's date in history:


Romulus Augustus was the son of Orestes who once had been an assistant to Attila the Hun, and who had at times been sent on diplomatic visits to Constantinople.
After Attila's death, Orestes joined the service of the western empire and quickly achieved senior position. In AD 474 emperor Julius Nepos made him 'Master of Soldiers' and raised him to the rank of patrician.
In this elevated position Orestes enjoyed far greater support by the troops than the emperor himself. For by now almost the entire garrison of Italy consisted of German mercenaries. They felt very little allegiance to the empire at all. If they had any allegiance then it was to their fellow German 'Master of Soldiers'. For Orestes was half German, half Roman.
Seeing his chance, Orestes launched a coup d'état and marched his troops on Ravenna, the seat of the emperor.
Julius Nepos fled in August AD 475, leaving Italy to Orestes.
But Orestes did not take the throne himself. With his Roman wife he had a son Romulus Augustus. Perhaps Orestes decided that the Romans would be more willing to accept his son, who bore more roman blood in him, than he himself did. In any case, Orestes made his young son emperor of the west on 31 October AD 475. The eastern empire refused to recognize the usurper and continued to support Julius Nepos who remained an exile in Dalmatia.
Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of Rome, was a target of much mockery, already in his own day. For his name alone invited ridicule. Romulus being the legendary first king of Rome, and Augustus its glorious first emperor.
Hence both his names were at times transformed to reflect the public's disrespect for him. 'Romulus' was changed to Momyllus, which means 'little disgrace'. And 'Augustus' was turned into 'Augustulus', meaning 'little Augustus' or 'little emperor'.
It was the latter version which stuck with him throughout history, with many historians today still referring to him as Romulus Augustulus.
But only ten months after Romulus' accession to the throne, a serious mutiny of the troops arose.
The reason for the troubles was that in other parts of the western empire landowners had been obliged to hand over possession of up to two thirds of their estates to allied Germans within the empire.
But this policy had never been applied to Italy. Orestes had at first made promises of such land grants to the German soldiery if they would help him depose Julius Nepos. But once this had been done he had chosen to forget such concessions.
But the German troops were not willing to let the issue be forgotten and demanded 'their' third of the land.
The man who led their protest was one of Orestes' own senior officers, Flavius Odoacer (Odovacar).
Faced with such a wide scale mutiny, Orestes withdrew behind the well fortified walls of the city of Ticinum (Pavia). But the mutiny was not to be a short lived affair.
Ticinum was besieged, captured and sacked. Orestes was taken to Placentia (Piacenza) where he was executed in August AD 476.
Orestes' brother (Paul) was soon after killed during fighting near Ravenna. Odoacer thereafter captured the city of Ravenna and forced Romulus to abdicate on 4 September AD 476.
The deposed emperor was retired to a palace at Misenum in Campania with an annual pension of six thousand solidi.
The date of his death is unknown. Though some accounts indicate that he may still have been alive in AD 507-11.

[Riothamus]

Today's date in history:


Romulus Augustus was the son of Orestes who once had been an assistant to Attila the Hun, and who had at times been sent on diplomatic visits to Constantinople.
After Attila's death, Orestes joined the service of the western empire and quickly achieved senior position. In AD 474 emperor Julius Nepos made him 'Master of Soldiers' and raised him to the rank of patrician.
In this elevated position Orestes enjoyed far greater support by the troops than the emperor himself. For by now almost the entire garrison of Italy consisted of German mercenaries. They felt very little allegiance to the empire at all. If they had any allegiance then it was to their fellow German 'Master of Soldiers'. For Orestes was half German, half Roman.
Seeing his chance, Orestes launched a coup d'état and marched his troops on Ravenna, the seat of the emperor.
Julius Nepos fled in August AD 475, leaving Italy to Orestes.
But Orestes did not take the throne himself. With his Roman wife he had a son Romulus Augustus. Perhaps Orestes decided that the Romans would be more willing to accept his son, who bore more roman blood in him, than he himself did. In any case, Orestes made his young son emperor of the west on 31 October AD 475. The eastern empire refused to recognize the usurper and continued to support Julius Nepos who remained an exile in Dalmatia.
Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of Rome, was a target of much mockery, already in his own day. For his name alone invited ridicule. Romulus being the legendary first king of Rome, and Augustus its glorious first emperor.
Hence both his names were at times transformed to reflect the public's disrespect for him. 'Romulus' was changed to Momyllus, which means 'little disgrace'. And 'Augustus' was turned into 'Augustulus', meaning 'little Augustus' or 'little emperor'.
It was the latter version which stuck with him throughout history, with many historians today still referring to him as Romulus Augustulus.
But only ten months after Romulus' accession to the throne, a serious mutiny of the troops arose.
The reason for the troubles was that in other parts of the western empire landowners had been obliged to hand over possession of up to two thirds of their estates to allied Germans within the empire.
But this policy had never been applied to Italy. Orestes had at first made promises of such land grants to the German soldiery if they would help him depose Julius Nepos. But once this had been done he had chosen to forget such concessions.
But the German troops were not willing to let the issue be forgotten and demanded 'their' third of the land.
The man who led their protest was one of Orestes' own senior officers, Flavius Odoacer (Odovacar).
Faced with such a wide scale mutiny, Orestes withdrew behind the well fortified walls of the city of Ticinum (Pavia). But the mutiny was not to be a short lived affair.
Ticinum was besieged, captured and sacked. Orestes was taken to Placentia (Piacenza) where he was executed in August AD 476.
Orestes' brother (Paul) was soon after killed during fighting near Ravenna. Odoacer thereafter captured the city of Ravenna and forced Romulus to abdicate on 4 September AD 476.
The deposed emperor was retired to a palace at Misenum in Campania with an annual pension of six thousand solidi.
The date of his death is unknown. Though some accounts indicate that he may still have been alive in AD 507-11.

Had to move you here. All posts need to pertain to the threads initial topic discussion...but thanks for the history lesson

[Lioneljoe]

Sorry about that, but it was too interesting of a date to ignor for thosw of us interested in Roman history.

[Riothamus]

Sorry about that, but it was too interesting of a date to ignor for thosw of us interested in Roman history.

Nice job with this post Lioneljoe

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

Great Post -- Nice Idea, we should try to keep this going. Maybe change the title to: "This Day in Roman History." -- nice work!

[Riothamus]

Great Post -- Nice Idea, we should try to keep this going. Maybe change the title to: "This Day in Roman History." -- nice work!

Great idea, Oswald von Wolkenstein

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

September 9, The year 9 C. E.:

Publius Quinctilius Varus and the Battle in the Teutoburg Forest:

Battle: Teutoberg Forest or Teutoberg Wald
Legions destroyed: XVII, XVIII, and XIX
Year of Battle: A.D. 9
Victorious general: Arminius
Loser: Varus

Favored by Augustus, Publius Quinctilius Varus was made consul with Tiberius in 13 B.C. He was also married to a grand-niece of Augustus. Afterwards, Varus was made governor of Syria where, Velleius Paterculus says, a poor Varus quickly became a very wealthy man on the backs of the Syrians. When Augustus, intending to expand his dominion of Germania to the Elbe River, appointed Varus governor to Germania, Varus continued his exploitation of local populations.
Cassius Dio says that the Germans pretended to go along with Varus and his financial burdens because Varus was accompanied by an intimidating military presences -- three legions. The Germans led Varus inland. Then, when comfortable and secure in the friendliness of the inhabitants, Varus spread his troops out, as requested by the Germans, to help local communities with such things as robbers and escorting trains of provisions.
Two of the leading German conspirators, Arminius (a Romanized name of a Cherusci leader that was later "Germanized" as Hermann) and Segestes / Segimerus, stayed with Varus, acting friendly and complacent. Meanwhile, there was an uprising in an area distant from where Arminius had brought Varus; so Varus, leading his troops, set out to quell the disturbance. Arminius and Segestes excused themselves saying they would be gathering their own troops to help Varus. In reality, they were gathering troops, but not to help. The Roman soldiers who had not been dispatched to (and killed by) the small communities, with all their armor and heavy baggage, headed out through the Teutoberg Forest to assist in the uprising. Dio says bad weather and terrain hindered their progress. Attacked by the lighter armed forces of the Germans led by Arminius, the Roman leaders soon realized how disastrous their situation was. Varus did what the Romans considered the honorable thing: he committed suicide.
This loss of three legions was one of the worst defeats in Roman history. Velleius Paterculus says it was the worst defeat since Crassus (of the triumvirate with Pompey and Caesar) was killed by the Parthians.